The Black and Brown Collision

I had the biggest brain storm last night! Well, to me it was big. In case you haven't seen on facebook, FH and I found a house to live in! Signed the lease last week. So, obviously, ever since then I have been decorating every room in my head. :) I've come to realize that I've really been decorating each place I've lived in the same way for the past 5 years, with the exception of my bedroom, and I think it's time for a little bit of a change. I guess because the rest are common areas I've been sharing with roommates and what's the point of redecorating those rooms? Anyway, my living room has the basic theme of black and white, which really just comes from the black and white Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn pictures I hung on the wall. I like it - it's clean and classic. But I've always just let them go with whatever furniture is in that room (surprisingly, I don't own couches!). Now that we'll be getting our own couches and decorating the whole room ourselves (ha - "our", more like MYself, lol), we can really do whatever we want, you know? My plan is for whatever couches we get, we'll probably put couch covers on them. I already have a couple from a previous house I lived in. So, couches are a blank canvas. My coffee table is brown. The frames my pictures are in are... black and silver. Ouch. Does the thought of black and brown together make you cringe? Well, it makes me cringe! I've been revisiting my registry recently since the invites are getting ready to go out and I want everything to be pretty much finalized on there. Yesterday I was looking at TV stands because FH is DYING to get a "TV like Mark's" (that's Bridesmaid Amanda's now husband) and says that when we do we need something sturdy for it to go on. Sweet, I'll add something to the Target registry. Easy. My first thought was I'll get a black stand to go with the pictures. Then I was really bothered by the flow of the room, since it'll go directly into where the brown bamboo bar is and then the kitchen (rust, green and yellow). Then I realized I could just get a brown TV stand... and buy new picture frames! Wow. What a novel idea! Then I realized I will have at least 10 8x10 bronze picture frames lying around after the wedding (I've been painting frames for our table names)... so I don't have to buy any new ones AND they make the room flow better with the bar area and kitchen. Also registering for rust colored pillows to really tie it together. Looks like my retro dream may come true after all! :)

Sorry, just had to share. Sadly, this made me really excited! This is what happens when you have Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle subscriptions starting at the age of 18 (and now Martha Stewart, too).

-C
xxx